TV News: Shadows, Dead, Spartacus, Downton

Dark ShadowsMPI Home Video is preparing an April 10th DVD release of the complete late 60’s gothic soap “Dark Shadows”, a month ahead of Tim Burton’s upcoming cinematic reimagining.

The set consists of a whopping 131 DVDs containing all 1225 episodes but doesn’t include the two movies – 1970’s “House of Dark Shadows” and 1971’s “Night of Dark”. It also uses the same DVD masters as the original individual 4-DVD sets issued over the past 10 years and will retail at $600. [Source: TV Shows on DVD]

Spartacus VengeanceThe first episode of “Spartacus: Vengeance” premiered over the weekend on STARZ. The show managed to pull in a record total of 2.1 million viewers across two showings on Friday night – a 10% increase over last year’s ‘Gods of the Arena’ prequel.

The episode was also available on-demand and online for a week ahead of the premiere and more than 1.4 million on-demand and online views were logged to date. [Source: Zap2It]

Downton AbbeyOscar-winner Shirley MacLaine is joining the cast of ITV’s hit British period drama which begins shooting its third season next month.

MacLaine will play Martha Levinson, the mother of Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) and something of a combatant for Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess. [Source: The Press Association]

The Walking DeadThe first three minutes of the mid-season premiere, scheduled to air February 12th, has gone online and kicks off right where the mid-season finale ended.